Youth and Community Work
I have a significant back-catalogue of work for young people, having written twenty plays, devised three pieces and directed a further fifteen productions for The Georgian Theatre Royal Youth Theatre. In addition, I produced two community events in collaboration with English Heritage and Visit Richmond.
See below for highlights of a few of those pieces.
Saga- A Viking Tale
A devised piece for The Georgian Theatre Royal Youth Theatre summer programme in 2021, based on the idea that stories are what get people through hard times. A cast of 16 teenagers worked collaboratively to put together a piece featuring comedy, physical theatre, puppetry, music and legends from Viking lore.
Anne Bonney-Queen of the Seas
A devised biographical piece about famous female pirate Anne Bonney, featuring stage combat, sea shanties, physical theatre and choral work, which was staged in August 2019 at The Georgian Theatre Royal.
InfraRed.
A senior-group dystopian piece inspired by The Handmaids Tale. Staged in 2018.
Resonate
A collaborative community event commissioned by English Heritage at Richmond Castle for the centenary of Armistice Day in November 2018. Actors performed eight short pieces in site-specific locations within the Castle grounds, influenced by the military history of both the Castle and the area.
The Theatre In The Ghost Light.
A community event to celebrate Halloween in Oct 2017. The Georgian Theatre was returned to it’s original form with professional actors in the roles of Samuel Butler and Tryphosa Brockell, owners of the playhouse. Young actors played the remaining roles as tour guides, gamblers, theatregoers and patrons in an immersive event. The evening culminated in a typical Georgian performance, complete with rowdy audience and social customs of the 1780s.
Pictured are Thomas Frere and Julie Winn in the roles of Samuel Butler and Tryphosa Brockell.
The Graveyard Boy
A devised piece inspired by Neil Gaiman’s YA novel “The Graveyard Book” as part of the summer programme for The Georgian Theatre Royal Youth Theatre in August 2017. The performance included dance, physical theatre and song.
Pictured above is the original poster artwork by Colin Burnicle- see more of his work here.